Ethnic Citizenship Research Articles

The Search For Ethnic Citizenship Differentiated From the Quechuas and Aymaras in Puno

The Search For Ethnic Citizenship Differentiated From the Quechuas and Aymaras in Puno

‘Dutch’ according to children and mothers: Nationality stereotypes and citizenship representation

AbstractThis research examines the endorsement of the nationality stereotype Dutch = White among children and associations with citizenship representations of their mothers (Study 1). Additionally, Study 2 explores how mothers include the concept of Dutch citizenship in the upbringing of their children. Study 1 shows that children (n = 197, 57% girls, 7–13 years old) from different ethnic‐racial backgrounds (White Dutch, Turkish‐Dutch, Black Dutch, Chinese‐Dutch) all endorsed the nationality stereotype and did so to a similar extent. Most mothers rated civic citizenship as more important than ethnic citizenship, but maternal citizenship representations were unrelated to child nationality stereotype. Study 2 shows that mothers often do not actively and consciously include the topic of Dutch citizenship in their upbringing, but might confirm the nationality stereotype in more implicit ways. Future studies are needed to examine how to work towards a more inclusive view of nationality among children in the Dutch context.

Protesting power-sharing: citizenship acts and eventful protest in divided societies

ABSTRACT This article examines waves of citizen protest against the ethnic citizenship regime of consociational power-sharing. It seeks to contribute to research on power-sharing by bringing together the literature on “acts of citizenship” and “eventful protest” to show how protest waves in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq and Lebanon seek to contest, destabilize, reimagine, and enact new forms of inclusive citizenship in ethnically divided societies. While research suggests that popular mobilization has destabilizing effects on power-sharing, this paper indicates that protest forms offer important forms of democratic participation and renewal for consociational systems. Towards this, the article illuminates four interweaving citizenship frames developed in protests: Citizens (Demos) versus Elites (Ethnos); Trans-sectarian; Inclusionary; and Inclusionary. The article draws on interviews, media and policy data to explore the voice of protestors.

The influence of cultural factors on the reidentification of Ukrainian refugees

Refugees experience double cultural trauma: both because of war and moving abroad. The process of moving abroad is accompanied by disruption of habitual social connections and causes restoration of those connections. Identity needs the proof of Others, forcing refugees to engage in processes of interaction. The theoretical concept of ethnomethodology allows the authors to trace the process of restoring these ties: how refugees present themselves and define themselves as Ukrainians with the help of cultural factors embedded in daily practices. We observe the rise of Ukrainian identity with the start of war in 2014 and then escalation in 2022. Research of the national identity of Ukrainian refugees in Germany has been based on unique survey data gathered in June 2022 using the Google Forms online survey tool (Germany, June 2022, n = 423). Survey questions were used to measure the components of national identity: constructive patriotism, civic citizenship, ethnic citizenship. We rely also on representative statistical data gathered by Ukrainian research centres and the UNHCR data portal. In conclusion it is seen that cultural factors help the process of reidentification of Ukrainian refugees.

Frederick Cooper. Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference: Historical Perspectives.

Frederick Cooper’s sophisticated, stimulating, and accessible new book, Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference: Historical Perspectives, presents an eminently historical conceptualization of citizenship. Diverging from theorists in other disciplines, Cooper declines to delineate sharply between citizenship and subjectship, jus soli and jus sanguinis, civic and ethnic citizenship, or thick and thin citizenship. Instead, he conceives of citizenship as a framework within which individuals make claims upon states. Cooper is keenly attuned to inequality and difference, terms he includes in his title, but he does not think they are fundamentally incompatible with citizenship. For him, citizenship is a framework, not an ideal. The bulk of Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference explores how state calculations and popular demands have configured citizenship in different historical contexts. The book encompasses a range of examples yet is masterfully concise, belying its origins as a series of lectures. Cooper capitalizes on his own research on French Africa and his collaborations with Jane Burbank on empire, while also covering states from the Ottoman Empire to postcolonial India, generously citing other scholars along the way.

Rohingya: a Neglected Ethnic, Potential for Nation Development in Myanmar

There has been discrimination against the human rights of the Rohingya ethnic minority in Myanmar. There have been a number of attempts by the incumbent regime to remove their citizenship status in Myanmar. The world community; caring countries; non-state and other international organizations that are pro-humanity reacted strongly. However, the regime in power did not ignore it, even closed itself off from various responses from various parties and still did not recognize the citizenship status of the Rohingya ethnicity. The question is, why does the ruling regime insist on not recognizing the citizenship status of the Rohingya? Why do regional and international organizations respond to discrimination against the Rohingya?; What ideas are offered to make “ethnicity” a capital for nation building?. The research uses qualitative methods with literature study, sourced from secondary data from documentation and literature. The finding is that the Rohingya ethnic citizenship status that is not recognized can perpetuate the domination of the military regime's power in Myanmar. The international response to discrimination in Myanmar is a form of concern for ensuring the upholding of the pillars of democracy, global security, international law and human rights in Myanmar. A new ideology is needed for tomorrow's generation in order to change the "ethnic faction" into the nation's "development energy"

Colonial and Post-Colonial Administrations and Fulani Rights in the Bamenda Grass fields of Cameroon, 1916-2020

The British colonial administration in implementing various Fulani cattle herder schemes in the Bamenda Grass fields of Cameroon created a cleavage between the Fulani and the indigenous communities. This cleavage made it impossible for the new people to acquire local citizenship anywhere. This eventually was used by the unscrupulous and exploitative post-colonial administrators to deprive the herdsmen of their financial and judicial rights in the Bamenda Grass fields. Oftentimes, the same was used as a wedge by the administrators against inter-ethnic solidarity between the Fulani and the indigenous communities during anti-government political developments in the region. In either case, the rights of the Fulani people were abused by the administrators. That is, without ethnic citizenship, the Fulani were easily frightened by these administrators and forced to pay in kind or in cash for their land disputes with the locals to be annulled, shelved or abandoned. The same was used to obtain Fulani support during political upheavals in the region. The rights of Fulani can only be rendered less susceptible to abuse by bridging the differences created by the British colonial administrators between the indigenous peoples and the herdsmen in the Bamenda Grass fields.

“A Reason Not to Belong”: Political Decentralization, Intercommunal Relations, and Changing Identities in Northeastern Uganda

AbstractAbim district, located in Uganda’s Karamoja region, is one of the scores of new administrative units created under the country’s decentralization policy. The establishment of Abim district in 2006, following decades of conflict in northern Uganda, was accompanied by changes in ethnic identity within local communities of Ethur farmers. Based on oral history fieldwork in Abim, Meyerson documents these changes in sociopolitical identification among the Ethur. In doing so, he demonstrates how political decentralization has become a venue for the combination of international discourses of indigenous rights, national notions of ethnic citizenship, and grassroots histories of intercommunal relations.

The Relationship Between (sub)national Identity, Citizenship Conceptions, and Perceived Ethnic Threat in Flanders and Wallonia for the Period 1995–2020: A Measurement Invariance Testing Strategy

This article examines the relationship between (sub)national identity and attitudes towards immigrants in the multinational context of Belgium. We extend our previous studies by analysing a longer time period (1995–2020) and by making a strong case for the idea that measurement invariance testing and theoretical meaningfulness are closely intertwined. To examine whether and how the relationship between (sub)national identity and perceived ethnic threat has changed over time and between regions, we first test for metric invariance of the latent concepts. Using data from the Belgian National Election Studies, we illustrate that evaluating invariance of measurements is a necessary condition for comparative research, but also that measurement equivalence testing should be considered as an empirical guide showing researchers where substantial conclusions should potentially be revisited and theoretical validity rethought. Next, we verify whether the relationship between (sub)national identity and perceptions of ethnic threat across subnational units can be attributed to different conceptions of community membership -in terms of ethnic and/or civic citizenship conceptions- in Flanders and Wallonia. While we expected that a strong identification with Flanders would primarily be related to an ethnic citizenship representation, and as a result, stronger feelings of threat towards immigrants; we expected that a strong identification with Wallonia would primarily be related to a civic representation of the nation and therefore lower feelings of threat. Thanks to our thorough invariance testing strategy, the conceptualisation and measurement of (sub)national identity had to be adjusted in Wallonia, and the hypotheses had to be qualified.

The Forms and Meanings of (In)Visibility Arab-Americans and the State of Terror in Youssef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat and Language Rooms

This article investigates two well-known plays by Youssef El Guindi, the most important and prolific playwright of 21st century Arab-American theatre. Both plays are related to the consequences of the terrorist attacks on the Arab-American community, and they explore the structures of control enacted by the security state and the strategies of its repressive politics. The article focuses in particular on the tropes of visibility and invisibility and its paradoxes for a minority that moved from ‘invisible citizens’ to ‘visible subjects’ within a few hours. The paradoxes of visibility and invisibility and their divide are here explored in relation to three main issues: the relationship between ethnic identity and citizenship – be it social and/or political; deviancy and the construction of Otherness; and identity and the body.

Pragmatic Trans-Border Nationalism: A Comparative Analysis of Poland’s and Hungary’s Policies Towards Kin-Minorities in the Twenty-First Century

This paper outlines the dynamic development of policies in Poland and Hungary towards kin-minorities and their outcomes under the rule of right-wing governments. The main aim is to provide a comparative analysis of kin-state policies targeting co-ethnics living beyond the countries’ borders and point out possible explanations for common and different elements in these two cases. The similarities between Poland’s and Hungary’s policies towards kin-minorities are manifested in an official narrative about one existing nation across borders, and legal measures and political actions aimed at supporting minorities in neighbouring countries. At the same time, there are some important differences concerning, inter alia, ethnic preferential citizenship laws. The Hungarian authorities use preferential naturalisation as a means of strengthening the influence of non-resident ethnic Hungarians as voters in Hungary’s elections. Non-resident Hungarians also play an important role in foreign policy towards neighbouring countries. For policymakers in Poland, ethnic Poles living abroad remain a demographic and economic reservoir. The changes in legal regulations, aimed at encouraging them to settle and work in Poland, are dictated by the constantly high demand for a labour workforce and expected severe demographic decline. Both Hungarian and Polish policies towards kin-minorities are examples of pragmatic trans-border nationalism, which is a concept also developed in the article.

China’s ethnic minority and neoliberal developmental citizenship: Yanbian Koreans in perspective

ABSTRACT This study examines the changing nature of ethnic minority citizenship under China’s pragmatist developmental transition. Our analytical focus is placed on Yanbian Koreans in the Northeast region of the country. In the socialist period, Yanbian’s Korean Chinese population developed a form of socialist ideological citizenship, but it had to be refashioned into a complex set of developmental requirements and opportunities under post-socialist reform and globalization. The nominally communist regime, on the one hand, strengthened its politico-ideological control over society and, on the other hand, liberalized the economic system. As to Chaoxianzu (Korean Chinese), among other minority nationalities, the party-state has emphasized their national (Chinese) identity, whilst, at the same time, endeavouring to use the Korean ethnicity for transnational developmental linkages with South Korea. This situation has required Yanbian Koreans to negotiate the complementary and conflicting relationships between (post-)socialist citizenship, ethno-local developmental citizenship, and neoliberal compatriotic citizenship with South Korea.

Regional identity and support for restrictive attitudes on immigration. Evidence from a household population survey in Ghent (Belgium)

ABSTRACT It has been argued that supporting a restrictive view on the inclusion of immigrants finds its origin in a localized feeling of group identity. We test this hypothesis with a household survey in the Belgian city of Ghent (n = 3735). The results show that local and national identities are salient, but also that regional, European, and cosmopolitan identities are supported simultaneously. Especially the regional, Flemish identity is strongly associated with a restrictive, ethnic attitude toward new groups in society. A European identity was not significantly associated with this restrictive attitude. Our conclusion is that not just the geographical scale of group identity is important in explaining anti-immigrant sentiments. The specific historical connotations of every geographical level should be considered. A comparison between generations, i.e. parents and their late adolescent children, suggests that this association between specific group identities and ethnic citizenship norms is equally present among younger cohorts.

Nation, Nationality, and National Identity: Uses, Misuses, and the Hungarian Case of External Ethnic Citizenship

The article looks at the changing terrain of inclusion and exclusion, through mapping the shifts in Hungarian citizenship law and its political context. More specifically, it deals with the legal aspects of the definitional exercise of belonging to the Hungarian nation, starting with an analysis of the relevant provisions of the 2011 Fundamental Law of Hungary and moving on to assess the phenomenon of external ethnic citizenship. The surrounding political and legal debates are read together with insights from normative scholarship to trace the changing meaning of who belongs to the nation, in what sense and with what practical consequences. The paper discusses the political context of the changing constitutional and citizenship rules to demonstrate the circularity in defining the nation: who gets to vote will have an impact on who decides on who gets to vote which in turn will have an impact on who gets to vote, how, and for how long. The article concludes that supplanting the political nation with the ethno-cultural concept means that overinclusion has given way to underinclusion. For instance, some who used to be defined as part of the ethno-cultural nation have come to be viewed as voluntary outsiders: with the availability of non-residential naturalization, those who opted not to acquire Hungarian citizens can now be seen as also falling outside the nation, rewriting basic tenets of national identity.

Legal Aspects of the Right to Nationality Pursuant to Myanmar Citizenship Law

It is universally accepted that everyone has the right to citizenship. Myanmar’s framework on the right to nationality constitutes a unique, exclusive, ethnic citizenship system based on jus sanguinis or the law of blood. Myanmar’s Citizenship Law was enacted in 1982 by repealing the Union Citizenship Act of 1948. As citizenship parameters were changed by the Law, many people in the Kachin, Karen, and Rakhine states lost their nationality rights and consequently suffered human rights abuses. In the Rakhine state, serious communal violence occurred in 2012, 2016, and 2017, and the government declared a state of emergency. This research paper focuses on how Myanmar can adhere to international standards for nationality rights. It provides a historical overview and legal analysis of citizenship laws in Myanmar using a human rights lens and offers suggestions for legal reforms that can help address the problem of statelessness in Myanmar. Specifically, it recommends the use of the jus soli, or the law of the soil, approach to citizenship.

Higher education in divided societies: between ethnic segregation and citizenship integration in kosovo

Higher education in divided societies: between ethnic segregation and citizenship integration in kosovo

Israel’s Politics of Citizenship

Israel has absorbed considerable numbers of non-olim immigrants since the 1990s. This phenomenon has posed new challenges to the state’s highly restrictive and ethnic citizenship policy, resulting in the emergence of a new phase in its politics of citizenship, which this article seeks to describe and analyze. By employing the methodology of political claims analysis—based on newspaper articles reporting attempts to expand immigrants’ access to Israeli citizenship between 1994 and 2013—and an in-depth study of one specific struggle over immigrants’ status, spanning the years 2003–2006, it shows that Israel provides a much narrower, although by no means closed, ‘opportunity structure’ for enabling immigrants to access citizenship when compared to developed liberal democracies.

Endorsing a Civic (vs. an Ethnic) Definition of Citizenship Predicts Higher Pro-minority and Lower Pro-majority Collective Action Intentions.

Europe has witnessed a polarization of intergroup attitudes and action tendencies in the context of the refugee crisis of 2015 and the rise of right-wing populism. Participation in both pro-minority collective action and right-wing nationalist movements has increased among members of ethnic majority groups. We analyzed these collective action intentions toward Roma people and Muslim immigrants in Hungary related to concepts of citizenship. In an online survey relying on a probabilistic sample that is demographically similar to the Hungarian population (N = 1069), we tested whether relying on the concept of ethnic citizenship predicted higher intentions to engage in pro-majority collective action, and lower intentions to engage in pro-minority collective action, and whether the connection was mediated by fear and empathy. We expected that the connections would be the opposite for civic citizenship. Our results supported the hypotheses, but we found that the ethnic definition was a stronger predictor of intergroup action intentions toward the immigrant group, and the civic definition a stronger predictor in case of the Roma minority group. In a second study (N = 320) we collected experimental evidence to show that civic and ethnic citizenship affected both types of collective action tendencies. We found that the manipulation had an effect on the concept of citizenship only in the ethnic dimension. Nevertheless, it influenced pro-minority collective action intentions especially in the presence of high empathy and low fear in the expected direction, that is, pro-minority collective action intentions were higher in the civic citizenship condition than in the ethnic citizenship condition. The effect was not found with regard to pro-majority collective action intentions. These findings highlight the potential consequences of nationalist rhetoric on intergroup action intentions and point out both the scope and the limits of influencing its effect.

Israel’s citizenship policy since the 1990s—new challenges, (mostly) old solutions

Israel’s highly restrictive citizenship policy constitutes the clearest indicator of its dominant ethnic model of citizenship. However, this policy has faced new challenges since the early 1990s, following the mass migration of non-Jewish immigrants. This paper examines and characterizes changes in immigrants’ entitlement to Israeli citizenship since the 1990s. It indicates that while Israel’s traditional citizenship policy has not undergone any significant change, two trends are evident: a much more restrictive policy towards Arab immigrants; and a somewhat more inclusive policy concerning other immigrants. To explain how these conflicting trends have coexisted, this study identifies three major characteristics of the Israeli policy: widespread use of the ‘divide and rule’ technique; managing policy through bureaucratic decisions; and the growing assimilation of liberal and republican principles into Israel’s citizenship policy, although without undermining—on the contrary, even reinforcing—the dominant ethnic model of citizenship. These findings indicate that although the dominant ethnic citizenship model in Israel remains stable, and can successfully tackle significant obstacles, limited opportunities exist for greater inclusion of specific non-Jewish populations within the Israeli polity.

Citizenship representations, group indispensability and attitudes towards immigrants’ rights

Social psychological research has distinguished between ethnic and civic conceptions of citizenship and examined the differential associations of these conceptions with perceived out-group competition and threats to explain attitudes towards immigrants. In contrast, the current study examines two dimensions of group indispensability: functional indispensability and identity indispensability. In a survey study conducted among a national sample of native Dutch we found that the endorsement of ethnic citizenship is related to weaker support for immigrants’ social rights because of a lower sense of functional indispensability and of identity indispensability. In contrast, the endorsement of civic citizenship was associated with higher acceptance of immigrant rights because of a stronger sense of functional and identity indispensability of immigrants.